1st gen Neon strut tower rot?

[RoadWarrior222]

Hey folks,

I just had to do the front brakes on my sister in law's neon, noticed while I was at it, that the passenger strut tower was getting rusty at the front seam down by the frame rail. Looks swelled/flaky so I doubt it's just surface, and is all along the front of it...

So, wondering how critical that is on these there, will the rest of the tower start fatiguing? Is most of the stress taken toward the top, bottom and rear? Is it saveable if ground out and patched? Either in just a "kill the rust" manner, because it's not critical yet, or by getting a piece of angle iron welded in or something?

Think the other side isn't too far behind, but it's hiding under the ECU.

Wondering whether to advise that this one is a goner, IMO the rocker panels are gonna break out all along it, it's got rust starting on the doglegs and corners of the doors. It's got a faint growl that could be axles, wheelbearings or diff bearing going bad, it needs rear shocks, tires, and has some odd electrical problems due to half trained quicky lube monkeys playing electrician. This last winter seems to have been rather hard on it.

Thanks for sharing any experience..


RW222

[cordes]

Mine has been rusty there for three years now. The rockers have gotten worse, but that strut tower area has stayed pretty much the same.

[Aries_Turbo]

my wifes old neon got a little rusty there (no rot) at around the 100k mile mark. i jammed a screwdriver between the layers, spread them, scraped the flakes off, cleaned it with brakekleen, coated all the metal with rust bullet, beat the metal together with 2 hammers, waited till it dried for a day or 2 and sealed all edges of that area with silicone. really gooed it up there.

just sold the car the other day with 200317 miles on it and it still looks as good as the day i fixed it.

im going to do that to my 97 sohc green neon soon before it gets bad. i gotta reseal the taillights again too.

Brian

[cordes]

On that note, I've read that the factory did put a seam sealer on there late in the 1st gen run.

[Mopar318]

The main reason I got my acr was that it had absolutely no rust on it. Not eve a spot underneath or in the strut towers. It came from the south, and had undercoating installed new.

I would install a strut bar in the front to hold everything together and call it good.

[dodgeshadowchik]

I have seen several neons with rust in that area. However, I don't think it ever got so bad where it became a structural issue. The car itself might die before then. Now... if it starts looking like this then I'd say it's time to retire it. ;)

[Turbodave]

Pretty sure my 95 is rusty in that area also, hasn't seemed to get any worse over the years I spray it with a heavy coat of fluid film every fall which might keep it from getting worse, but at this rate I'll have no 1/4 panels or rockers left by the time I need to worry about the strut towers.